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Garden and Forest. 



[June 18, 1890. 



depressed agriculture in general has been the rapid expan- 

 sion of the cultivated area of the country, and therefore the 

 increase of staple farm products beyond the home demand 

 for them. Whether certain prosperity awaits the farmer as 

 soon as the country will consume all that he can produce 

 is not a question to be discussed here, but the figures which 

 indicate that we shall be compelled to import wheat before 

 the end of the century are interesting. 



It is probable that Mr. Davis underrates the productive 

 capacity of our total farm area, but after making due al- 

 lowance for this we are prepared to believe that his pro- 

 phecy is worth considering. Our people have acquired a 

 habit of boasting of the country's ability to feed the world 

 and of our exhaustless wealth in general. But natural 

 resources are not infinite. A few years ago we were talk- 

 ing of our exhaustless wealth of timber, but our forests of 

 White Pine, the most important timber-tree of the conti- 

 nent, are no longer spoken of as boundless ; dealers in 

 hard-wood know that the supply of Walnut and Ash will not 

 endure forever, and there is a growing belief that the Long- 

 leaved Pine is doomed. In like manner we may soon dis- 

 cover that good land can no longer be had for the asking, 

 and that every acre which can profitably be tilled, even with 

 the help of irrigation, has been brought under the plow. 



American Dried Fruits in Foreign Markets. 



TWO complaints have been made against the health- 

 fulness of American dried fruit. The first is that 

 when this product is sulphur-bleached there is a question 

 whether the after-drying removes all traces of the sulphur, 

 and therefore whether the fruit has absorbed and retains 

 enough sulphuric acid to impair its healthfulness and 

 flavor. The other objection is that when fruit is dried on 

 galvanized wire trays it takes up a sufficient quantity of 

 zinc to make it poisonous. Very careful chemical tests 

 made in this country have failed to secure any proof of the 

 presence of free sulphuric acid, and Dr. Lattimore, in be- 

 half of the New York State Board of Health, after testing 

 numerous samples of the evaporated fruit, found no trace 

 of zinc. Nevertheless the exclusion of our fruit from cer- 

 tain European markets particularly on account of alleged 

 danger from zinc is a serious matter to producers. The 

 fact seems to be that traces of zinc have been discovered 

 in exported fruits, and although the quantity was so minute 

 as to be utterly harmless, this serves as a pretext for shut- 

 ting out our fruits from foreign markets, and therefore any 

 remedy or any method of evaporation which will leave the 

 dried fruit absolutely free from foreign substances is much 

 to be desired. We add a portion of an interesting paper 

 which was read by Mr. Michael Doyle, of Rochester, at 

 the meeting of the Western New York Horticultural 

 Society last winter, and which has been published in the 

 proceedings of that meeting : 



The agitation against evaporated fruits commenced in 1884 

 in Holland, and since then has spread to Germany, the largest 

 consuming country in Europe, and later to the other adjacent 

 countries. It is claimed by the health authorities that evap- 

 orated apples contain minute portions of the oxides of zinc to 

 an extent more or less deleterious to human health. Not a 

 single case of illness resulting from a proper use of this fruit 

 has ever been reported in this country or the United Kingdom, 

 notwithstanding the fact that tens of thousands of tons have 

 been manufactured and consumed since the business began 

 some eighteen years ago. The effort on the part of the German 

 government to prevent the importation of this class of fruit has 

 been based largely upon the desire of excluding it, for the object 

 of encouraging the manufacture of the same class of goods in 

 Germany. Only a few years ago the Hanoverian government 

 gave the sum of 50,000 marks, say $12,500, for the establish- 

 ment of an evaporating factory, the first of its kind in that 

 country. The promoter of the scheme did not, however, cal- 

 culate with much accuracy upon the large quantity of fruit 

 required to keep the factory in steady operation, and he found 

 it impossible to secure a sufficient supply. Besides, the cost 

 was so much above the value of the product when offered in 

 competition with fruit shipped from this country, that the 

 manufacture was only continued by drawing on the subsidy 



of the government to cover the loss. In other words, fruit 

 was offered from here at about seven and a half cents deliv- 

 ered at Bremen, while that made at Hildessheim cost fully ten 

 cents per pound. As a result, the evaporator was operated 

 until the donation of the government was exhausted, then 

 stopped, and it has not since been reopened; for the German 

 experimenters have found to their satisfaction that, in the 

 present condition of orchard-culture in their country, they 

 cannot compete profitably with America. This we believe to 

 be the beginning of the alarm in that country over American 

 apples. 



It is safe to say that there is no more danger in fruit dried 

 upon galvanized trays than there is from the employment of 

 the ordinary tinned cooking utensils. At present it is almost 

 impossible to do business with Germany without furnishing a 

 sworn declaration as well as a chemist's certificate, attested by 

 the Consul at New York, declaring and showing that the goods 

 are absolutely free from zinc or zinc oxides. Goods which are 

 found to contain even the most minute quantity are confis- 

 cated by the Government officials and their value destroyed by 

 pouring crude petroleum on the fruit, which renders it unfit 

 for food. As a result the business is done with no little hard- 

 ship, and many houses in Hamburg and Bremen have aban- 

 doned the sale of American fruit, as the penalties, not only in the 

 way of confiscation of the fruit, but of heavy fines and long 

 imprisonment, are sufficient to make the dealers extremely 

 careful and cautious in handling the product. 



But although our fruit contains no injurious amount of zinc, 

 we must prepare it absolutely free from every trace of the 

 metal or we can make no sales. Fruit dried on wooden trays, 

 or those made from netting, is absolutely free from zinc. 

 Recent analysis has shown this ; and although the change was 

 made at a rather inopportune time, and rather late in the sea- 

 son, the quantity of fruit produced and dried on those trays 

 was quite considerable, all of which has been taken without 

 objection abroad. A prompt improvement is necessary, 

 either by greater care in the use of galvanized trays, for it has 

 been shown that the small particles of zinc found in the fruit 

 have been caused by the use of the iron scrapers used in re- 

 moving the fruit, which very often adheres to the wire, or by 

 ceasing to use them. The use of these sieves for three sea- 

 sons has shown a loss of twenty-four per cent, of the weight of 

 the zinc galvanism by this means alone. In order to retain the 

 trade established many years ago on the Continent it is im- 

 perative that some other system be employed, for it is only by 

 abandoning the galvanized trays that the prejudice necessarily 

 created against the product can be successfully overcome. 



There is room for inventive genius in this direction, and 

 proper remuneration will attend the successful efforts of the 

 man who will offer to the manufacturers a satisfactory suhsti- 

 tute for the galvanized wire now employed. It should possess 

 fire-proof qualifications if of either wood or netting, and if 

 metallic it should not be liable to oxidation and should not dis- 

 color the fruit. Just now this is the only impediment to 

 increased trade abroad, which will undoubtedly follow these 

 much needed improvements in the manufacture, and all fruit 

 growers should be interested in pushing the industry to its 

 maximum development, and thereby assure a remunerative 

 outlet for our constantly increasing orchard-products. 



Parterres in the Park of St. Germain. 



1\J O more delightful place than St. Germain en Laye can be 

 -L^ reached in a day's excursion from Paris. For genera- 

 tions the ancient palace and the adjacent forest were favorite 

 resorts of royalty on pleasure bent, and the strong walls of the 

 former frequently served as a safe place of retreat for one 

 court faction or another especially during the wars of the 

 Fronde. A so-called "New Palace" was built by Henri IV., 

 but nothing now remains of it except some portions of its ter- 

 race walls and the pavilion called by his name. Adjoining 

 this last is the magnificent terrace for the sake of which and 

 the view that it affords the tourist now seeks St. Germain. It 

 was constructed by Le Notre during the reign of Louis XIV., 

 measures 12,500 yards in length by about forty yards in 

 breadth, is planted with avenues of great trees, and com- 

 mands a wide and beautiful panorama, with the winding Seine 

 as the central feature and Paris far off in the distance. 



In addition to this terrace Le Notre laid out extensive gar- 

 dens at St. Germain and ornamented them with fountains and 

 statues. But they have entirely disappeared. The garden 

 shown in our picture is a modern creation and occupies a dif- 

 ferent site, a portion of the forest having been cut to make 

 room for it. The forest fills a promontory formed b)' one of 

 the bends of the Seine, and the trees it contains are chiefly 



